Journal of Sacred Work

Caregivers have superpowers! Radical Loving Care illuminates the divine truth that caregiving is not just a job. It is Sacred Work.

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Former President & CEO of multiple hospital systems and founding president & CEO of 20-hospital OhioHealth, best selling author, film artist, ordained minister, composer, published poet, syndicated T.V. host, trial attorney, federal prosecutor and Municipal Court Judge. Erie is internationally known as the founder of the Radical Loving Care(R)movement. He also heads Erie Chapman Foundation, Dane Dakota Productions, LLC, and Chapman Health International, Inc.

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Day 97 – Lady with the Lamp

April 7, 2009

How very little can be done under the state of fear. – Florence Nightingale (1820-1910)

   Walking tent to tent during the Crimean War, Florence Nightingale carried about a lamp to guide her. And that is why suffering soldiers, aided by her presence, called her the "lady with the lamp." The light of her leadership would one day illuminate a new age in nursing.
   Prior to Nightingale, nursing was often a shoddy profession populated by nurses that were sometimes dirty, disheveled, and drunk. After Nightingale, nursing gradually grew into one of the most respected pathways to caregiving.
   Nightingale understood the need for cleanliness and discipline. Yet, she also knew that true caregiving was grounded not in fear, but in Love. It was Love that caused her to leave her rich and comfortable life to travel to the battlefields of war. She responded to her calling.
   One would think her arrival on the battlefield with her own band of nurses to aid the sick and wounded would have been greeted with joy. Instead, she was ridiculed by doctors who resented her presence.
   Why is Love so often rewarded with anger and hostility? What is it we fear?
   Nightingale spent her long life advancing nursing and caregiving. Although she was plagued for the last half of her life with chronic fatigue syndrome, the lady with the lamp championed nursing from Europe to America.
   Recognizing both the advantages and limitations of treating patients in institutions, Nightingale wrote: "Hospitals are only an intermediate stage of civilization." She would no doubt be disappointed to see how much compassion has been frustrated by so many leaders in hospital nursing.
   So much of the caregiving load in America is carried by women. Perhaps, that is what caused this valiant leader to write, in 1852, "Women never have a half-hour in all their lives (excepting before or
after anybody is up in the house) that they can call their own, without
fear of offending or of hurting someone."
   With respect to love and compassion, have we progressed in nursing since Nightingale's time or not? If not, what can we do to restore the loving care of the past?

-Erie Chapman

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6 responses to “Day 97 – Lady with the Lamp”

~liz Wessel

April 7, 2009

“We assume that Love comes as a bright light, a magnificent burst of energy before our eyes. But the older I get, the more I believe that Love comes like the single candle on a night without electricity.” ~Michael Sullivan
Nightingales eternal lamp continues to burn brightly as it is passed on from one generation to the next. I do believe we have made great progress since Nightingale’s time. However, often I feel as if I am dancing the Cha Cha, two steps forward and one step back. What inspires and motivates me is her dream of healing our world and this fuels the lamp of daily perseverance of working for a greater good.
Many of my colleagues provide great inspiration to me. These are the clinicians who are reaching beyond borders to help people and families in great need. My number one nurse hero is Ann Kaiser at St. Joseph home Health. Each week she goes to the Salvation Army homeless shelter to assist by setting up dinner and bedding for families. Last week-end she was down in Tijuana, on one of her many trips to Mexico to build houses for people who are living in cardboard boxes. Last month she went on a two week mission to Kenya to help provide medical care to hundreds of the world’s poorest people. I could go on with an unending list of her activities. Antonia Mendoza a SJ Hospice aide ministers to the homeless each week by bringing food to people in our local community. What started as a tray of sandwiches for a few has grown to providing meals for hundreds of people, a true fishes and loaves story in action. My friend Marilyn will be going to Guatemala in June to help with people with problematic wounds in a medical clinic. I know of many physicians and nurses who are working to set up clinics, orphanages, and schools around the world. I’d like to share the Nightingale Declaration for Our Healthy World
“We, the nurses and concerned citizens of the global community, hereby dedicate ourselves to the accomplishment of a healthy world by the year 2020.
We declare our willingness to unite in a program of action, sharing information and solutions to resolve problems and improve conditions — locally, nationally and globally — in order to achieve health for all humanity.
We further resolve to adopt personal practices and to implement public policies in our communities and nations, making this goal for the year 2020 achievable and inevitable, beginning today in our own lives, in the life of our nations and in the world at large.”
To learn more and to join thousands of other nurses who are signing the Nightingale Declaration go to: http://www.nightengaledeclaration.net

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Victoria Facey

April 7, 2009

Without knowing how to respond, I chose to read others’ comments first. I was moved by Liz’ statement of co-workers here at St. Joseph Home Health. How quietly Ann, Toni, Marilyn and Liz walk about, but what strength they hold while taking on the great caregiver role in our community and throughout the world.
I have little knowledge of the world of nursing, with the exception of those on staff. I am humbled by these ladies and their efforts in caring.

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Diana Gallaher

April 7, 2009

The nurses who have cared for my mother in a hospital or clinic setting over the past year have been wonderful. They have been loving, patient, and kind. I always wonder if they think of it as loving care and sacred work. You can’t force the heart, so surely love is an underlying factor.

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ann kaiser

April 8, 2009

“Be patient with me, God is not done with me yet” is a quote that I have heard alot and I love. It makes me smile .I think that statement is true for everyone. We all grow spritually at differrent times and at a different pace.
My given first name is actually, Florence and when I started nursing school, my instructor suggested that I go by my middle name , Ann ,to avoid being nicknamed Florence NIghtengale. I believe in my nursing career I have met many Nightengales. This very instructor molded my heart to that of caring for a patient only out of Love. At my current work, my dear friend Liz Wessel acts out of Love in every motion . She is a true light of kindness and MY nightengale. Her painting of “Whatever the Question, Love is the answer” hangs at my desk. My friend , Victoria, always has a smile for me, which I treasure!We are all God’s patchwork quilt..threaded together very deliberately by God. When we do something for another person, God is creating a patch that will eventually weave another person or patch together. I had just returned from Kenya and a former home health aide that I had worked with years ago called me out of the blue and said that she just finished her degree to open an orphange in Africa!! I gave her a referral to the orphange our church sponsors that I had just visited and is looking to expand and hire. Just think about that and stand back and look at the world. God is creating a master piece quilt that we all belong to. Isn’t that grand? It’s like a quilt..just not quite finished…because God is not done with us yet.:>

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October 20, 2009

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